Subaru revealed that cheating on their shoddy final inspection tests extended for far longer than originally thought.
The good news is that none of these parking brakes recalls affect U.S. made vehicles but the bad news is that if you’re invested in Subaru in any way, you may see your stock portfolio lose value. As per Subaru in an official press release they put out earlier today (Nov. 5, 2019) they’re issuing an addendum to the first recall they put out earlier in June expanding their recall far beyond the 6,000 Subarus they identified as a product of their shoddy final inspections. Subaru is voluntarily recalling more than 100,00 Subarus as their parking brakes might not be up to snuff.
Since this press release hit the internet, Subaru Corp’s stock price fell from a high of 13.2 last week on Thursday by 6.8 percent down to 12.42, a new low the company hasn’t seen since the end of the recession back in 2009.
The tampering of inspection results deals with two issues, the effectiveness of the parking brakes and making sure wheels are in proper alignment when they’re shipped off to other markets, two inconceivably small details Subaru gleaned over in order to get as many vehicles made as fast as possible.
With parking brakes, it looks like Subaru testers stepped on the brakes at the same time as pulling on the parking brake, further assisting the braking power by using the brakes hydraulic system when they’re only supposed to use the parking brake alone.
The second cheat is with their side-slip tester which identifies misaligned wheels in a matter of seconds with vehicles driving over side-slip plates at a certain speed to determine just how much “slip angle” a Subaru goes through when the road “shifts” underneath. Driving over a side-slip plate faster than required manipulates the test to allow for a wider margin of error.
This supposedly wraps up what is being called the biggest scandal to rock the small Japanese car maker. Corrections to testing and re-education were part of the press release, reassuring customers that this is the last anyone would hear of their malfeasance.
Source: Subaru
